192 RACEALONG 



which $8,000 was paid in his two-year-old form, 

 and Peter the Great, $20,000 being paid for him 

 after he won the Kentucky Futurity in 1898. 



Fate had marked two of these stallions to be 

 leaders. At the start all eyes were turned towards 

 Arion, whose service fee was fixed at $2,500, and in 

 1898 when Nico won in 2:08l^ as a four-year-old 

 it looked as though he would be a successful sire. 

 Nico's death the following year stopped what looked 

 like the first two minute trotter. 



In the interval Bingen raced to a record of 2:061/4 

 and sired a remarkable group of stallions. His list 

 included Admiral Dewey, Todd, Bingara, Binjolla, J. 

 Malcolm Forbes, The Exponent, Earl of Chatham, 

 Senator Hale, and Malcolm Forbes. 



While Bingen was acquiring his reputation, Peter 

 the Great reduced his record to 2:07l^ and sired 

 the Kentucky Futurity winner Sadie Mac, 2:061^. 

 Notwithstanding this showing he in time, like 

 Godolphin Arabian in English turf history, was cast 

 aside and finally in 1903 Mr. Forbes sent him to the 

 New York auctions, where Peter Duryea purchased 

 him for $5,000. He shipped him to Kentucky, the 

 transfer proving the most fortunate move in the 

 history of the trotting turf since George Wilkes was 

 sent to that state in 1873. 



There was no demonstration when Peter the 

 Great arrived at Lexington but when he left for 

 Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1917, after being sold for 

 $50,000 when twenty-three years old, the Kentucky 

 breeders knew that the world's leading sire of racing 



